Home Theater Wall Surface Recommendations

gregj

Customer wants a home theater area in currently unfinished basement. He's concerned that drywall walls will be too "hard" and have poor sound quality. Any ideas on what might be suitable instead of drywall?

mdshunk

I don't have anything to compare... but the one and only home theater that I ever wired that I would consider "high end" had some sort of fabric type wallcovering installed over the drywall. Many moons ago, when I was an apprentice, we did a remodel at a real theater. It has sort of like Homasote stuff on the walls, covered with a burlap type wallcovering. I personally think that drywall is fine for 90% of home theaters, because you'll be carpeting and putting in upholstered furnitrue. Most of them are in basements too, with tile ceilings, which offer additional dampening. If I was you, I'd stay out of this decision making process. If you're involved, whatever the end result is, it will be your fault. You can't measure sound quality in real terms, and good sound is so subjective. I'd steer way clear. It's never a shame to tell them that this is not your area of expertise. Let them make the decision and inform you of how they want the walls treated. Naturally, you can install whatever, but lacking the expertise to determine the best approach, it's better to offer no input. (other than to explain that most basement remodels are drywall)

PressurePros

don't build the room square (dimensionally), slope the ceiling and use heavy drapes to diffuse high frequencies. They can also line the walls with acoistical tiling or egg crate.

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Pressure Washing PA
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S&P Builders

in a theatre room we put in a basement we used a two coat plaster with a raised sand swirl finish. it didnt echo because we insulated between the cement wall and the blueboard. we also used a very heavy rug.

DecksEtc

Along the lines of what md alluded to, you may suggest that they contact the place they bought the home theater system from. Where I live there is a very high end/top quality store that will do a consultation and recommend how the room should be set up i.e. room construction, speaker locations, etc.

If they're spending the cash to have the room built for a home theater, a small investment in an expert's consultation would be highly recommended.

austinbirdman

I'd suggest a different tack for your Home Theater customer. It's true that four expanses of wall board won't be the best acoustically, but neither would four expanses of just about any material except shag carpet, which isn't really the best substance for a wall. Unless he wants carpeted walls (with acoustic framing), he could acheive sound deadening through some other, simple and aesthetically pleasing methods -- namely, bookshelves. Bookshelves stocked with books are ideal sound deadeners. They work for the same reason that exposed beams work on the ceiling (another good addition, if feasible) -- sound waves get into the spaces between shelves and their echo tends to die out there, rather than bounce all over the room. Bouncing echoes are what make certain rooms too live and full of conflicting sounds. If your client can agree to place several bookshelves (they ought to have books and assorted stuff in them, to let the echos enter and most fully die out), along with just a few custom acoustic treatments from a local or online hi-fi dealer placed strategically in the corners of the room, he'll get excellent deadening without crap-ass ugly walls.

The floor and ceiling are also very important for the acoustics. If you can have exposed beams on the ceiling, that will be a major plus, since the beams trap sound waves. While popcorn acoustic ceilings are ugly, they are another good alternative. A slab floor, which most basements have, can be a major problem. To deal with the floor, you could propose a cheap option of thick carpeting with a really good carpet pad. The best option acoustically would be to frame a floor on lumber over the slab, installing a wood subfloor, and then carpeting on that. My HT sits on a carpet over slab, however, and it's a perfectly passable solution. By no means suggest engineered wood over the slab, or a stained slab, unless the customer plans on putting thick rugs in the room -- this can work, with a LOT of rugs, but too much exposed slab or exposed wood with nothing but slab under it will create an echo chamber that will totally ruin the acoustics.

Good luck. Visit the Web site and discussion boards at Axiom Audio (a Canadian speaker company) and you can find a lot of good discussion on acoustic treatments.